


Fox and the Hound

by DevinePhoenix



Category: Bleach, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Because Zangetsu, Gen, Same-Sex Daemons, UraIchi Week 2018, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-15 20:35:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14797535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevinePhoenix/pseuds/DevinePhoenix
Summary: Mugetsu means ripping your soul apart. But when your soul is a living, breathing thing, that might be a problem.





	Fox and the Hound

**Author's Note:**

> Day 2: Daemon AU  
> Warning, I'm new to Bleach and have never written for these two characters before. Characterization may be off and mentions of Bleach cannon things may be wrong. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> Dunno where I was going with this, I just let it flow. I hope you enjoy! (beware shifting tenses, I can't seem to keep them straight)

Zangetsu settles the day his mother dies. The settling itself doesn’t come with a sudden deep realization about themselves. Jarring and sudden as his entire worldview shifted and settled into a fixed form. It was nothing that dramatic. Instead the final shift is quiet and smooth and almost unnoticeable in the face of grief. It takes several more months before the people of Karakura realize that the shift isn’t solely due to mourning.

When Ichigo stares down at the coffin slowly being covered with dirt, cold and distant, he realises two important things.

One.

This is his fault.

He followed that fake-ghost girl down to the riverbank and all he has to show for it are two sobbing sisters and a growing hole in his chest. His mother is gone. He held her body. He felt her crow daemon dissolve into Dust.

Two.

_He refuses to let this happen again._

All he has left is this world are his sisters and idiot dad. His mother was the center of his world. She is gone and it’s his fault. But he refuses to make the same mistake twice. He will fight the world if he must, to keep his sisters safe. They are all he has left of her.

Zangetsu lands before him, shifting from the form that he favoured, the raven that they had thought he’d settle in to. His mother had always sounded so hopeful at the thought that they’d take after her and let their soul take wings. And he does take after her. He’s his mother’s son more than he’s Isshin’s child. If life had continued on the same, he’s certain they would have settled as something wild and free with wings to carry them aloof. Just like his mother.

But Life is not that simple.

Instead, he shifts into something better suited to their new life creed. A raven gives him the freedom of the skies but it will be no use defending his family. He cannot be so aloof as to leave them behind anymore.

He lands on heavy paws, body large and muscled. He has never seen a Daemon so large before, he towers over Ichigo. Even Isshin’s Engetsu, who is large for a Shiba-Inu, is smaller. Zangetsu shakes out his black fur with a pleased _whuff_.

“Is that it?” Ichigo asks, reaching out a hand to twine his fingers in his ruff.

“Yes.” His taciturn daemon nods.

Their final form is a wolf of some kind, with shaggy pitch-black fur and a stark white cross on his chest. A cross that his mother’s Daemon had also carried.

(They are both pleased that they can carry her memory for the rest of their lives)

(It may not be healthy, but she made them who they are and _they cannot forget that_ )

Zangetsu has always chosen large shapes, but this form is the largest so far, large enough that Ichigo could probably comfortably ride him. They think this form suits them more than the raven ever did. This form is strong. They had teeth and muscle and cunning. They can fight like this. They will _kill_ anything that threatens their pack.

They are only nine.

Isshin doesn’t realize that Zangetsu is settled for months.

 

* * *

 

 

Benihime hadn’t settled for the longest time. Far longer than was normal, even for Soul Society. But rather than treat him with distain, the second division only saw a valuable tool. Someone who could disguise and shape himself and his daemon to carry out any mission. They trained him for separation, like any other Onmitsukidō officer, but did their best to prevent her settling. He was simply too useful with her ability to shift.

It wasn’t a chore for them either. They enjoyed changing themselves at a whim, it was simply too practical and fun. They liked to disguise themselves, to trick people with their shapes and acting. Even when they left the Onmitsukidō, it didn’t stop them from shifting for scientific reasons as well. Everything about their ability was rare and interesting to study.

Kisuke was aware he wasn’t what most people would call normal, too sharp, too ruthlessly pragmatic, too focused on his own seeking of knowledge to care for those he left in his wake.

(He learned that lesson too late.)

She didn’t settle until he was well and truly betrayed by all he knew. Standing underneath a pallid earth sky, with a pack of half hollowed Shinigami groaning on the floor behind him. Exiled and hated by all he knew. She stared at him, proud and hateful and full of all the emotions that he dared not express.

“We will make them pay.” She swears. “We will make _him_ pay.”

She shifts. And it is different from the usual, which feels like water and air. This feels heavy and full of explosive, _fiery_ , nuclear power. She shifts to fill the form of his rage and brutality. His truest self, the one he hides from the world. The one he denied so that they could continue to shift as they pleased. She is glorious and deadly, a beautiful orange fox with red foxfire at her feet. Her tail sways, and there is more than one, fanning behind her like a grim warning.

_Four…_

_Six…_

_Nine._

He watches her new form in quiet awe. He…hadn’t realized he was so powerful? He rarely measured himself up to others in combat, preferring his science and his schemes. But there was something about seeing a quantifiable number before him that drove it home.

 _Nine-tailed Kitsune_.

They are pleased. This is close to being able to free shift as a settled daemon could get. A trickster fox would well be able to keep up their usual tricks. Kisuke can hardly believe that he denied himself for years for nothing.

He meets her savage gold gaze, ready for bloodlust and vengeance.

“No matter how long it takes.” He swears to her. “We will.”

She grins a big vulpine grin that shows too much teeth and never shifts again.

 

* * *

 

 

They meet, years later, a cunning fox helping the brash young wolf reach his full potential so that he would be their Queen against Aizen. The most powerful piece on the chessboard, and the one who Kisuke shamefully realized would be able to go toe-to-toe with Aizen reiatsu-wise if things went wrong. (Which they did).

Their initial meeting was rushed, Ichigo on the verge of dying in the rain and Kisuke trying to save them before they bled out. Then Kisuke killed him, heart full of regret as he severed his student’s soul chain in the sake of training. Pouring all his effort into teaching Ichigo how to make his soul into a blade sharp enough to cut anything.

Zangetsu grew in leaps and bounds and size. The wolf had always been growing with Ichigo grow, he never stopped like most Daemons did when their human was grown. But under Kisuke and Benihime, Zangetsu nearly doubled in size. From a size that could dismiss him as large dog, to something more along the size of a horse. That wolf grew powerful, strong enough to protect his precious people.

Strong enough to topple a god.

But not strong enough to survive it.

Ichigo honestly hadn’t expected to survive the Winter War. He expected to go out, burning everything, he had to take down Aizen. When Mugetsu became the only option, he couldn’t help but feel that he had been right the whole time.

The Shinigami talked about regenerating broken zanpaktou, broken daemons, like it was easy fact for them. Something accomplished after some rest and time in the fourth division. He hadn’t the heart to remind them that he wasn’t fully a Shinigami. There was no telling what the final Getsuga Tensho would do to him, if there’d be any of himself left at all.

Kisuke had prepared him the best he could for battling against Aizen, uneasiness given away by Benihime’s tactile behaviour with Zangetsu. She had always been tactile with Zangetsu, more so than Ichigo had ever seen her with any other, save for Yoruichi’s Shunko, but she had all but been glued to the giant wolf whenever they weren’t sparring.

 

In the end, Ichigo really didn’t have a choice. Aizen had simply grown too powerful.

After Mugetsu, hurt in all the worst ways. Knives deep inside the soul, unravelling, unmaking himself. When it finally crumbled to nothing, Ichigo could feel the world folding down three dimensions.

 _Snap_.

The godlike power.

 _Crack_.

His powers, the ability to see and touch spirits.

**_void_ **

His daemon.

It wasn’t like losing a limb. It wasn’t even like having your eyes ripped from their sockets, bloody and traumatic. It was like losing your sense of touch, loosing blood, something constant that you didn’t even realize was vital draining away until you were left hollow.

He was alone in his head, in his body, in his soul.

He was so cold.

He couldn’t register anything, even though he knew his eyes were open, his ears worked fine, his nerves still carried touch. His brain had disconnected from his body. All he could feel was numb.

Then there was a spark, a little red flicker of something familiar. Of something like a cheeky and protective presence with a ruthless undertone. It was so familiar, he couldn’t help but reach out to it in turn.

“-chigo, Ichigo! Come on, breathe! That’s it!”

The world was still distant and off, but he could finally see the blond, composure in shreds, leaning over him. Reiatsu crackled around him as the scientist fed whatever energy he had left into Ichigo’s stuttering and collapsing system. To his faint surprise, Benihime had nuzzled into the crook of his neck, fur comforting against his skin. A warm palm on his cheek, drew his attention back to Kisuke.

“Hey,” He said, soft. In a gentle tone that Ichigo had never heard him use before. “Benihime’s keeping you aware for now. I think, it may be best…for you to…”

“Zan-zangetsu’s gone.” Ichigo slurred, grasping numbly at the shopkeeper’s sleeve.

Kisuke’s face crumpled slightly at the admission. He had planned everything out perfectly, but _oh he had hoped_. This was their last resort, the final ace in their hand. They had both known the unspoken risk of Mugetsu. They had bet on his human half pulling him through. Keeping him tied to life. But there was just too much Shinigami in him. With his Shinigami powers gone, his blade was gone. Ichigo had used his daemon as a blade, and without Zangetsu, his human soul could not go on.

Humans without daemons died.

Kisuke had gambled with Ichigo’s life _and lost_.

Kisuke _hated_.

He hated that his actions had led to this.

He hated Aizen for forcing them to play this card.

“I-I was hoping _something_ of him would be left. Enough to keep you alive at least!”

“Aizen?” Ichigo whispered, brown eyes unfocused but still staring him down intently.

“Don’t worry about him.” The blond scolded gently. “I imprisoned him. There’s nothing for you to worry about now. You did it. He’s defeated.”

Ichigo relaxed into the warm fur and reiatsu at his neck. “T-that’s…good…”

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, keep those eyes open.” Kisuke tapped his face lightly. “That’s it. Think about those sisters of yours. Do you want to make them cry?” The blond looked like he was seconds from crying himself. “Just keep breathing, you colossal idiot.”

“I think there is still something I can do.” Benihime purred. “Oh Zangetsu, you clever boy.”

There was a golden glow as her jaws suddenly sank into, _through,_ Ichigo’s chest. Kisuke gave a yelp, grasping at his own chest with a poleaxed expression.

“Hime!” He squawked. “Warn a guy!”

The fox huffed and stuck her entire head in Ichigo’s chest cavity. He couldn’t feel much of what she was doing. All he could feel was her paradoxically comforting bloodthirsty reiatsu seeping into every crack in his ripped soul. The world slowly refocused and Ichigo groaned as every stab and bruise made itself known.

This was intimate on so many levels, far beyond simply touching another person’s daemon. Another person’s daemon had decided to going fishing in his _soul_. He could feel _KisukeBenihime_ ’s warm fondness and pride of him.

They loved him.

Not romantically but something deep that resonated close to _pack_ in his soul. More than pack. Ichigo’s pack was under his protection, his sisters, his friends. They sometimes fought alongside him, but in the end, he was the one that saving to world fell to.

But this wasn’t _pack_ , _under-my-aegis._

This was _equal._

This was _hunting-partner_ , _shield-brother_ , _trickster-kitsune-sensei._

 _Ah_ , he thought to himself.

_That’s what that emotion is._

A spark in his chest reached out for _brother_ in turn. Kisuke’s face went soft and reverent. Ichigo stared dumbly as Benihime slowly pulled out Zangetsu from his chest.

He stared at his daemon. Zangetsu was tiny now, a small little pup held gently in the fox’s jaws. He couldn’t be bigger than Ichigo’s palm. He had never been so small in their life. He had always been huge, always larger than life, full of Ichigo’s massive reiatsu. The small black body lay limp and unresponsive.

He was so _fragile_.

But he was alive.

So, it would have to be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know if 'mythical creature' is an option for daemon but it is now. I didn't even pick the daemon species, they just happened as I wrote.
> 
> Zangetsu- Unidentifiable wolf species, keeps growing and growing. Ichigo CAN ride him, think princess mononoke.  
> Benihime - Nine-tail trickster Fox. Likes illusions and messing with people's heads.
> 
> I didn't really get space to say it but I headcannoned that all the Quincy have bird daemons with quincy cross markings.


End file.
